Hello All,
(Just a general disclaimer that I must insert here at the beginning. I am but a lay person, like most of you. And these weekly “thoughts” are but my own. Not the definitive word on this or any topic. Just my own conclusions derived from my own study and faith in God. The greatest hope I have for these weekly “thoughts” is to have them be a springboard for further study on your part. Not to be a weekly treatise to be blindly accepted. So, please read them with this intent, this motive in mind).
This week’s lesson from “The Adult Sabbath School Guide” is titled “Playing God”. A look at some of God’s strongest statements in Scripture regarding the destruction of Babylon and Assyria. So we must once again grapple with the destruction of the wicked and one universal problem all us sinners have… misunderstanding God. This is reflected in the title of our lesson this week (“Playing God”). As if gaining and exercising authority (even absolute authority) over our fellow man is what our God does. And so when we sinners strive for this authority (like Assyria, Babylon, Media-Persia, etc.) then the issue is not about absolute authority, so this false reasoning assumes, it’s that we sinners are usurping the absolute authority that belongs to God alone. That God alone has and uses absolute sovereignty and man must never. Absolute authority even to destroying people is OK if God does it, but not OK if man does it, so this false reasoning goes. That God killing man is OK, but man killing man is not OK.
But this interpretation assumes an understanding of God that makes Him to be like us sinners. A retributive god. A god who “pays back” for all you’ve done. A god who must “balance the books” so he can forgive. For that is how we sinners operate. And so the idea of a retributive god is perpetuated… even today… in our lesson this week as shown by the title. We call the devastation caused by those ancient empires as “playing god”. And then we turn around and justify those very devastating acts by our God, because He is sovereign and has the right to do so. As if He is like us… retributive. But this interpretation does immense insult to our God of humility, meekness and love. His justice is not retributive but distributive. Not paying-back but giving-out. Not reaction but action. Retribution is paying-back someone what they are due, based on what they have done. Distribution is giving-out to someone what they are not due based on the grace of the giver. God’s “justice” (or doing what is “just” and “right”) is an out-pouring of grace, not a pay-back for evil done.
We must stop acting as if God is like this. It is a deception straight from the heart of Satan, who hates God. He has us believing the God cannot forgive unless payment is made for the violation. But do you as a parent make such stipulations upon your child? That your child must somehow pay a penalty for every sinful act before forgiveness is granted (retributive justice). Or do you look for repentance and a change of heart (distributive justice)? So do you love your child more than God does? This is not possible! So God does not look to pay-back, instead He distributes justice in order to evoke a change of heart in the sinner. And if there is such a change, all is well. If not, then the bold, unvarnished truth must be told. Told even with force. Or even anger, if appropriate (and only God knows how to do this).
Take for example the Third Angel’s Message. The most horrific message ever given in Scripture. The messages in Isaiah under our study this week are faint precursors to this Third Angel’s message. In all these messages, God is speaking plainly to us about sin and sinners. About all of us and our true condition. It is not Him threatening us. It is the truth… spoken plainly in the only loving language that can be heard. A call to come home and worship our God as He is in truth. Truth-filled calls that call us away from every false notion about Him. And an illumination of what sin is really doing to us. The natural consequence of ignoring God and persisting in willful self-destruction. These messages really are messages of love and truth, designed to “set us right”. Messages of love straight from our Father’s heart. Messages designed to turn us around from all that is false. Turn us from the sin that is killing us. Turn us toward God, to trust the One who only loves, who always forgive, who always calls, who always love. He shows us sin in plain language so we can turn and be “set right” of “justified”.
The message of God to Babylon in our study this week was given through Isaiah almost 200 years before the fall of Babylon to the Medes/ Persians and almost 400 years before Alexander the Great took Babylon from the Persians. And the Third Angel’s message to the people at the end of time was given through John almost 2000 years ago. So God, in His gracious distributive justice is giving time and ample warning to those upon whom the message applies. Not warning us to beware of Him. But warning us to beware of attitudes that lead us away from Him. Let us not fall into the deceptive reasoning that maintains that “it is pointless to argue that (God) ultimately terminates sin in a passive way, by simply allowing cause and effect to take its natural course” (quarterly for Thursday, February 4). It is imperative that we “children” of our “Father” rightly understand our “Dad”. Of all people on the earth, we need to understand and explain our Father and His actions of Love and Distributive justice to our brothers and sisters who do not know Him. Does He kill people, has He killed people? Yes! The scripture is full of God’s actions like this! But there is an infinite difference between a “Father” who “puts to sleep” His terminally sick children in the “first death” and a “Father” who allows sin to take its natural course in the “second death”. The difference is in the motive, intent and heart of our Father. We must always have a Father who loves, and whose every action is love. Our picture of God is everything.
With brotherly love,
Jim